RPA works with public sector entities to design and assess the regulatory framework across various sectors underpinned by an in-depth understanding of businesses’ challenges in meeting legal requirements whilst ensuring workers’ rights and safety are guaranteed.
We work collaboratively with clients – EU institutions, national governments, businesses, trade associations, civil society organisations – to solve increasingly complex problems of efficiency, effectiveness and risk assessment and help clients take strategic decisions related to their business operations and performance.
Our main focus areas are:
- Business Economics
- Occupational Health and Safety
Business Economics
Most policy interventions, be they to improve the environment, health, social or economic wellbeing, involve actions on the part of one or more business sectors or industries to deliver them. Particularly where a new policy or a policy change is likely to affect the cost of inputs, the price of goods and the overall competitive position of firms (and potentially the wider competitiveness of the EU), there is a need to ensure that proper account is made of the impacts on industry and businesses when trying to determine the most appropriate policy to put in place.
Since 2010, the European Commission has integrated the assessment of impacts on industrial competitiveness into the overall analyses of economic, environmental and social impacts of new policy proposals and the ‘Competitiveness Proofing Toolkit’ sets out the approaches that must be used. The relevant analytical framework for assessing competitiveness includes an assessment of sectoral inputs, structure and processes; external factors (e.g. market demand and supply); competitive benchmarks; and the impacts of regulatory initiatives and other framework conditions. The SME market share is also an important indicator to be considered in regards to the likely impact of any proposal on competitiveness, especially if the impacts on competitiveness are much more pronounced for SMEs.
Our expertise covers multiple sectors: chemicals, tourism, manufacture of electronic and electrical goods, automotive industries, fisheries, energy, renewables, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, steel, plastics, agribusiness, waste, water, nano technology, polymers and many more.
Our business economics team pride themselves on offering unique approaches to quantifying the ‘unquantifiable’.
RPA offers expertise in the following areas:
- Supply chain mapping
- Supply chain management
- Information flows in the supply chains structures
- Business management
- Operations research for business enterprises
- Sustainable buildings
- Regulatory environment
Occupational Health & Safety
Occupational Health and Safety legislation and policies are designed to create a safe and healthy work environment to protect workers from accidents, injuries and exposure to risks and hazards.
RPA combines technical expertise in chemical and employment policy, occupational health and safety and environmental safety with health economics to provide evaluations, studies, socio-economic assessments, guidance and training resources to a wide range of EU-level institutions, national authorities and private organisations.
This expertise has been used in the following areas:
- Impacts and benefits of OSH policies and practices.
- Public health regulations, policies and expenditures.
- Guidance, practical tools and training resources that help employers comply with OSH regulations.
- Risk management policies and practices.
- The prevalence, prevention and reduction of exposure to occupational health risks.
- Impacts and benefits of OSH policies and practices.
- Exposure to dangerous and hazardous substances.
- Emerging risks related to nanomaterials, circular economy and skills for the Green & Just Transition.
- Leadership and workers participation in OSH policies and practices.
